Legally Kidnapped

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Social Services whistle-blower Carol Woods speaks to Brian Gerrish about her time at Lancashire Social Services where she came under extreme pressure to falsify documents and perjure herself to justify children being removed from their parents to order.

Since speaking out, Carol has come under even more pressure including threats and intimidation.

A Texas couple is suing an adoption agency after they allege the agency knowingly withheld information about their daughter’s medical condition during the adoption process. Their 8-year-old daughter from China was adopted via Starfish Children’s Services after the couple was told the child suffered from spina bifida. The couple, Robert and Amy Meeker, have adopted special needs Chinese children in the past and agreed to adopt their little girl, Carys, despite her condition. However, when Carys arrived in America, the family says they quickly learned that spina bifida was one of many medical conditions the child suffered from daily. In fact, the Meeker family says that in addition to spina bifida, the girl was also blind, deaf, has hepatitis C, severe epilepsy, scoliosis, and has also suffered from periods of self harm.

A monstrous Queens foster mom who allowed a 19-month-old boy in her care to sit in scalding hot water faces up to 25 years behind bars, after a jury convicted her of assault by depraved indifference Wednesday.

It was an emotional day at the Mississippi State Capitol . Wednesday was the deadline for floor action on general bills that originated in the other chamber. But that didn't speed things up in the Senate. They spent three hours debating this bill about terminating parental rights.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the case of a 6-year-old girl with Native American ancestry who was removed from her Los Angeles-area foster home and placed with relatives in Utah.

Authorities say a suburban New York foster parent accused of repeatedly sexually abusing boys in his care kept his victims quiet by threatening them and telling them he had installed hidden cameras in his house to watch them.

A jury trial has been scheduled for Sept. 11, 2017, in a Jersey County couple’s lawsuit alleging a Collinsville attorney and adoption agency’s conflict of interest botched their attempt to adopt a baby.

He stands four-foot-nine, weighs just 60 pounds and recently celebrated his 10th birthday. But don’t be fooled by his small frame or tender age -- this Winnipeg boy has proven to be untouchable, and perhaps unstoppable, to law enforcement, the justice system and the child welfare system.

A preteen girl and her sisters endured years of sexual assaults and abuse at the hands of a member of their foster family — and the city-contracted agency that placed them ignored their cries for help, according to a $21 million lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Training in new procedures at the Department of Children and Families has been inconsistent and social worker caseloads “remain at crisis levels,” the union that represents DCF social workers said Monday after meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and others to assess progress at the embattled child welfare agency.

The nonprofit agency that repeatedly sent kids to accused perv Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu was previously forced to pay about $17 million to foster children caged, beaten and tortured by another sick foster parent.

More than 415,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States, and the PBS NewsHour talked to a diverse group of people understand what issues these children face and how to improve their outcomes.

Massachusetts' Department of Children and Families has gained 170 new full-time employees since July. It has put in place new policies requiring background checks for every household member where a supervised child is living and reviewing 911 calls from homes where there is a report of abuse or neglect.

Every day on the walk from West Campus to the University, students pass by homeless people, many of which are young adults who, under different circumstances, could pass off as classmates. A single street separates one of the country’s most affluent college campuses from the streets that are the refuge of these unfortunate young adults. Beyond the typical makers of homelessness, such as drug use or alcoholism, many of them instead suffer the collateral damage of the state’s underfunded foster system. Decreasing homelessness in Austin benefits from a better awareness of this system’s harsh financial realities.

Child poverty and officially reported cases of abuse and neglect have risen drastically in recent years in the state of Michigan, according to the 2016 Kids Count report released last week by the Michigan League for Public Policy.

A small girl repeatedly raped by her dad and older brother in one of Merseyside’s most shocking-ever abuse cases faces having her own FIFTH child taken from her by social workers immediately after she is born.

Sarah Palin might have recently signed a deal to star in a new TV show, but her family is having a rough start to 2016. In addition to her daughter's child custody issues, Palin's son has also lost time with his daughter.

A western Kansas woman is suing the state and some of the agencies involved in questioning and removing her 11-year-old son from her home after he spoke up at school about her possessing and using marijuana.

Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad is an Iraq War veteran, a Marine, and a no-nonsense political consultant who works to elect Republicans. And his voice cracks when he talks about the little boy he came to call Bonus Baby.

Upholding the conviction of three persons for gang-raping five mentally challenged girls in an orphanage run by them, the Bombay High Court has come down heavily on the state Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for failing to do its duty as a watchdog.

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that children under 5 cannot be held legally responsible for negligence, saying they have a limited capacity to appreciate how their actions can harm others and an "inadequate internal ability" to control impulses that might lead to injuries.

Mormon Church officials are examining a lawsuit filed this week by two Navajo siblings who say they were sexually abused in a church program decades ago. Their attorney says church officials were told about the abuse, but did nothing.

Monday, March 28, 2016

In the modern age, the internet has us all connected and people are putting too much private and personal information out there on social media accounts. Now, thanks to a dear friend who brought this to my attention, we see even more of the harm that can come from this.

That said, I have warned time and time again against discussing the private details of your case on Facebook because it is likely that you will be retaliated against by CPS or the court. In fact, the practice of lawyers checking the Facebook posts of the opposition for dirt has become quite common. I've also seen this happen back in the Yahoo Groups days, when that was the big thing, but now, (and yes it's time to pick on a foster parent blog) we see that not only will CPS Agents and the lawyers stalk you, but the foster parents will too.

Okay, I admit it- I have totally Facebook stalked the parents of my foster children and/or the birthmother and birthfather of two of my children who I am not Facebook friends with. (Please tell me I'm not the only foster parent out there who does this!)

What is the harm from this? Well, it enables the foster parents to formulate an opinion about you. When that happens, they'll think that it's there job to interfere with your reunification efforts, like in the recent Lexi case. "How can CPS give this wonderful child back to that horrible bio-family when they have me to take care of them?" A foster parent who falls in love with your child can be a very difficult obstacle to overcome.

Now it is true that this foster care provider sugar coats it by saying that she does it so she can share baby pictures with the real parents, but I'm sure her motivations are much more invasive. Perhaps it's simply a part of her emotional justification process or perhaps it's a part of her overall scheme to undermined your reunification efforts. Who knows?

Saturday, March 26, 2016

The Choctaw tribe of Oklahoma is blasting the foster family credited in court with restoring an abused little girl to health and happiness for doing “nothing but delay” the case and turn it into a political cause.

The Garden City mother who has become a face of the medicinal marijuana legalization movement in Kansas is suing the state and some of the agencies involved in questioning and removing her 11-year-old son from her home last spring after he spoke up about her cannabis use at school.

Two former child welfare caseworkers with the Oregon Department of Human Services are suing the state for $919,333, claiming that supervisors fired them after they complained about repeated violations of state law.

Two members of the Navajo Nation have sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alleging the church placed Native American children in Mormon foster homes where they were sexually abused and that LDS leaders did not take adequate steps to protect those children.

Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham may be the most controversial of her cast mates. From starring in her own sex tape to engaging in social spats on Twitter, Abraham never leaves her fans bored. But her most recent endeavor is raising eyebrows for a different reason.

Federal inspectors found that Florida is not adequately enforcing its rules at child care facilities, discovering violations that exposed children to potential electrocution, poisoning and other injuries, according to two federal reports released Friday to The Associated Press.

Two members of the Navajo Nation have sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alleging the church placed Native American children in Mormon foster homes where they were sexually abused and that LDS leaders did not take adequate steps to protect those children.

It all started yesterday when Reddit user wtfisthislegal first posted about her co-worker's strange Facebook postings about one of her adopted children (the user has since deleted her account). The Redditor claimed that "Mary" constantly talked and posted on Facebook about wanting to "get rid" of one of eight adopted kids — a child from Ukraine. "Mary" was advertising that she wanted to "re-home" him. The Redditor was posting the story so she could get legal advice about which authorities she should contact about the situation. She wrote:

Of course, there are plenty of horror stories about how children are treated by their own parents. In fact, the current child welfare system was largely built on such stories. When anecdotes collide, it’s time to look at the data.

The Arizona Department of Child Safety has failed to resolve nearly 12,000 cases of alleged abuse or neglect that have been open for at least 60 days without an investigation or services being provided to a potential victim, according to a Cronkite News review of the state’s most recent numbers.

Lexi, the 6-year-old girl removed from the home of her Santa Clarita foster family Monday, is home with her biological Choctaw family in Utah, capping a five-year court battle, a spokesman for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma said Wednesday.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state's attempt to slow those reforms earlier this week. It also allowed a lower court judge to appoint two child welfare advocates called Special Masters who will oversee the process.

SURVIVORS of historical child abuse have been urged to come forward and share their experiences as a four-year investigation into allegations surrounding youngsters in care launches a call for evidence.

Following the abuse and torture of three children that led to two deaths last year, the Monterey County Department of Social Services began implementing more changes to its child welfare division this month and submitted a report to the state.

The bill gives judges the discretion to decide who is best fit to adopt a child — such as a foster family — in certain instances instead of automatically honoring a birth parent’s wishes. Biological parents previously had almost total control over adoptions, even when they had lost parental rights because of abuse or neglect, or crimes such as murdering a spouse.

A former foster father sentenced yesterday to 20 years to life in prison for child rape. 51-year-old Robert Bergner of Nipomo reached a plea deal with the county district attorney. At his sentencing yesterday, the foster and adopted daughter read a statement detailing the struggles she faced for years. The girl, her brother and her sister were taken away from their birth parents by county officials in 2002.

A South Florida teen whose father was arrested after the teen went missing in December was found in Vero Beach but escaped after he was placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, police said.

The federal government is determined to overhaul the First Nations child welfare system, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett says -- even as critics focused on the issue say the budget fell well short of what's needed.

Humming away in a brick building near the banks of Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River, two servers filled with personal data hold the potential to improve the lives of the state’s most vulnerable children.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

I woke up, flooded with dread. I was going to be sick but tried desperately to prolong the inevitable. When I knew I really had to get up to start the working day, I rushed to the bathroom, clutching the sink for support, heaving repeatedly.

A Navy veteran who was honorably discharged from service is fighting the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) after his children were forceably removed from his custody due to “unsubstantiated” claims against the family. Father and Navy veteran Raymond Schwab has been battling DCF for custody of his children for 11 months despite the fact that the DCF found charges against the Schwab family “unsubstantiated.” The family says that they have not been given a valid reason why their children

The state of Texas lost two intermediate battles Monday in its fight to block a federal judge's efforts to reform a foster care system that she found has violated children's civil rights by subjecting them to rampant neglect and abuse.

This child should have been placed with family since the beginning. These foster parents should have done what they needed to do to support the child through this transition. It totally disgusts me that there would be this much negative attention towards a child going home.

And the foster father, Rusty Page is a total drama queen.

A foster family fighting to hold onto 6-year-old Lexi, who they've loved as their own for 4 years, made a very emotional plea to the public to help in their fight to keep her. And while it's heartbreaking to watch a family ripped apart, as a fellow foster parent, I wish they would have handled things differently -- for Lexi's sake.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

While I understand that the foster parents have fallen in love with this child, she is now with her biological family where she should have been to begin with.

While a petition to keep a 6-year-old part-Native American girl in the home of her foster family garnered thousands of supporters, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services relocated Lexi Monday afternoon.

Mississippi has gotten a lot of bad press in the past year for its in-school corporal-punishment practices, which is perhaps one reason its State Board of Education announced last week its plans to propose its first-ever policy regulating the restraint and seclusion of students, according to the Associated Press.

Children and their families have suffered false accusations by DCS in collusion with hospitals and schools, immigrant activists alleged on Monday. A spokesman for DCS said the agency simply does not collude with others.

On the same day a federal judge complained about rapid turnover among Texas’ top child-welfare regulators, lawyers for the state confirmed Monday that a longtime aide to Gov. Greg Abbott will be the new head of Child Protective Services on an interim basis.

A disabled veteran who uses marijuana to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain, and says he once used marijuana to kick a heroin habit, had his children seized by the state of Kansas over his marijuana use.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Australia’s political establishment, the media and the police are maintaining their efforts to whip up a racist fear campaign, in particular against African youth, following exaggerated claims that youth “ran amok” in Melbourne’s Federation Square on March 13.

The number of children who died from abuse and neglect in Massachusetts fell sharply in 2014, according to a newly released count that defied state predictions and raised questions about whether the drop reflected improved vigilance or just good luck.

Two foster children have had to stay in hotels since Manitoba’s fall announcement that it had ended its dangerous reliance on rented rooms for temporary placements – a pair of emergency stays deemed necessary for the children’s well-being but that nonetheless underscore concerns about transparency and resources outside the capital.

After living with a foster family in the Santa Clarita area for years, a 6-year-old girl may be removed from their care due to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law seeking to protect American Indian families, a lawyer told KTLA on Saturday. Dave Mecham reports from Santa Clarita for the KTLA 5 News at 10 on Saturday, March 19, 2016.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

The idea that it takes a village to raise a child actually has some merit in terms of a supportive community which promotes sound values, but I’m not sure the progenitors of the idea had this in mind. In Rhode Island, concern over unattended children has manifested in the state house in the form of a proposed law which would criminalize decisions by parents to allow children below a certain age to be left unattended in various circumstances. In other words, the state will decide the proper amount of supervision for your offspring and if you disagree you may just wind up in court. (Yahoo News)

Guy Ritchie has reached out to Fathers4Justice amid his ongoing custody battle with Madonna over their 15-year-old son Rocco. The film director contacted the campaign group for advice and a "jargon-free rundown" of his parental rights, the Mirror reports.

I was, on reflection, very lucky. With the exception of six months or so when she was unwell, I had the same social worker, Marie, for my 14 years in care. I remember a benign figure who would appear every now and then and take me out to lunch at Happy Eater on the A27, or to the beach in her VW camper.

The Romanian Pentecostal parents who had their five children were seized from their custody by the Norwegian government last November are in the midst of a 40-day fast while they await a court ruling that will decide whether or not they will regain custody of their children.

The U.S. lacks coherent, effective strategies for reducing the high number of children who die each year from abuse and neglect, a commission created by Congress reported Thursday after two years of sometimes divisive deliberations.

A new study by the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research shows that nearly 2,700 Alaska children were in foster care in any given month of 2015, up 20 percent over the monthly average in 2014.

For the second time on Wednesday, Manitoba New Democratic Party Leader Greg Selinger was interrupted by protestors, including the same couple that interrupted Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman at an anti-racism event in January.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Today, the Ways and Means Committee voted to pass the Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children Act (H.R. 4472). The bipartisan bill, introduced by Ways and Means Committee Members Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), requires states to implement the National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE), a system that reduces the amount of time it takes to place foster children in the environment best suited for them.

While the national political spotlight has faded from Mississippi since the primary vote, its poorest families are now getting the wrong kind of attention from Washington: The US Commission on Civil Rights has issued a scathing report detailing how both childcare providers and families are being systematically cheated out of their entitled social welfare resources.

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